The thoughts and musings of a Roman Catholic in the Archdiocese of Washington.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Transgender Bill Passes, Catholic Church Silent

The Montgomery County (MD) Council passed a Transgender non-discrimination bill (Bill 23-07) today. One of the most frightening aspects is that there is no exemption for religious organizations.

So, we have a bill that could force Catholic schools to hire a transgender or transsexual teacher or even a principal. Wouldn’t that be an interesting sight in a second or third grade class.

However, what I find very interesting is that over the last few weeks, I saw no notice in the parish bulletin asking us to write to the Council, no word from the pastor (and I consider him to be a good priest), no mention of it neither in the Catholic Standard nor from the Maryland Catholic Conference. (I did receive emails from the American Family Association (AFA) asking me to contact the Council requesting them to vote against it. I did.)

I wonder how many of my fellow parishioners voted for these council members in the last election? I wonder how many will vote again for them again because they are “open-minded” and for “social justice?” I wonder when our Catholic leaders will stand up to these politicians or is it simply too late?

There are quite a number of reasons why I object (and why the Church should) object to this.

We do try to love our neighbors. However, loving your neighbors does not mean you must put up with something that you believe is morally wrong. If your neighbor is selling crack to little kids, should you stand by and say "Gee, isn't that nice." I don't think so.

There can be an issue as to what they teach. Teaching math may be pretty straight forward. Teaching history will easily allow for the person to include their own biases, easily influencing young minds.

Second, how they dress and act in the classroom does influnce young minds for many, many years. You know that as well as i do.

Third, I guess standing up for what you believe to be morally right and correct is an attack.

If you look at any statements, the Church may feel that this "lifestyle" is wrong, but it does not use offensive, demeaning, and even threatening language to "attack" that lifestyle. If anything, many (but not all) of those who oppose the Church's teaching use that sort of language.

The Congregarion for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a sub secretum document to , which was leaked to Catholic News Service in 2003 after it was reissued to Catholic bishops.

See: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=19829

Unfortunately, the "scientific" underpinnings for the Congregation's document came from Dr. Paul McHugh, the Chair in Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, whose psychiatric specialty is eating disorders, and whose knowledge of the subject is extremely inaccurate.

If one wants to consider a theological discussion of transsexualism, I would mention three biblical passages you should read:

Isaiah 56:1-7Matthew 19:12Acts 8:26-40

After reading these passages, I'd suggest you read an entry from my blog:

If we adopt the position taken by the Congregation based on Dr. McHugh's erroneous views, you don't get to a *moral* issue at all. Being transsexual does not involve an issue of morality, or a moral choice. At worst, we might be considered "mentally disordered." But the mental disability has zero impact on the way in which we interact with other people.

If you believe that the accepted treatment of sex reassignment surgery involves mutilation of the body in opposition to God's Plan, then you get awfully close to Mary Baker Eddyism - if God's Plan rejects medicine and surgery as an interference, we are then left with faith healing. And who is to judge what God's Plan is for any given individual?

I am trying to understand - what is it about being either a man or a woman that is morally wrong?

The Church teaches that sex reassignment surgery does not change gender - and that is absolutely right. The problem is, though, that the individual's gender is not really defined by the shape of their genitalia at birth, but on the way their brain develops.

Dr. McHugh and others seem to think that the theory that underpins the current understanding of transsexuality is that gender in the mind is changeable, based on the discredited theories of Dr. McHugh's predecessor at Johns Hopkins, the late Dr. John Money.

There are scientific studies that have shown that gender identity may be based in the neuronal density of the central portion of the basal stria terminalis - in the hypothalamus of transsexuals the BSTc is similar to that of their corrected sex, and dissimilar to that of the sex they were assigned at birth.

If you focus on the erroneous birth sex assignment, you think of a man who "changes" into a woman. You might want to consider thinking of the woman, stuck in a male body, who is finally able to have medical science help her as best as it can to give her a body that matches the way her brain, mind and soul developed.

Think of someone erroneously assigned as male at birth as a Woman Born Transsexual - she is never really a "man" even if she tries to assimilate.

Moving on - what do you think might be confusing to children? Children will understand better than adults that transsexualism is very rare - only about one person in 1,000 is transsexual. And children will understand that this isn't something that happens with everyone.

Indeed, that 1 in 1,000 child who learns that he or she is not the only person in the whole world who feels that way, will actually benefit by knowing that there are other people that God made this way.

If this doesn't move you, then please consider this to be one of those cases referred to in Matthew 7:6, and then read Matthew 25:31-46 - it is not too late for a heart to unharden.

Amen to Luke and Joanne. My Catholic children (elementary and Middle)are educated as to what it means to be Gay Lesbian, Bi and Trans. I tell them that all genes are open to variation (hair, eyes, height, etc) and this is nothing different. It is not for us here on Earth to decide. We need to strive to see with the eyes of Jesus and not humans. My trans Catholic friend is coming to stay with us this weekend. I have taught them to open their hearts to those who are different. We never know who the messenger of God's word will be....

Hi, (And sorry no grammar or spell checks will be done. This was done in a single sitting. I am quite tired, and will ask all of you to make the needed spelling and grammar checks. Thank-You, and I....) First this involves items of which no Catholic is forced to believe and is stated as such by the church. The reasons are important. All people selected by God to know Him, can do so very well through the teachings of the Catholic Church. He God, also recognizes the Protestant Christians, and this is proven by The Holy Spirit being there and even the working of some miracles within. Further, many of that faith, are talked to by The Holy Spirit. It is also true in the Catholic Faith. Although, I refuse to tell God He is wrong and have failed at the test of Abraham etc. Whence, upon my failure, as it was at it's most atrocious point, I had told a Catholic Priest in a confessional some converstations with God, that were in fact conversations with God. I knew it then. I admit it always. I should never have been forgiven in my mind, yet, it is not my mind and my ways which are correct. So, I was told to get a Spiritual Director. I knew what this was. I was impressed and egotistically pleased, that maybe my state with God was more than casual. I remembered, a woman, who had waited for some time to see her Spiritual Director. She wanted him to stay longer. He was leaving. She prayed to God. A great, and I am told great storm developed, and it seems rather instantly. The Spiritual Director couldn't leave, and was upset at her. Somehow, he knew she was at the source of this storm. He asked her, what did you do? I don't rememeber the answer, however, it is historical, and my knowlege of this is from that history. So, she must have told him what she had done. Now, it is my turn, and it is much less, in my mind wonderful, what I was to go to one for. It all was. I tell my priests, at my home parish, of my being asked to get a spiritual director. I did this quite tactfully in the presence of a priest who I knew was a Spiritual Director, with some of the most wonderful personal contacts with God. He said, I will do it. I responded with, I was hoping you would. We meet. I tell him the issues. There is one item of seeing the Trinity, feeling the one on the right with extending my feelings out, and feeling the power as I just started to approach. There is more, they are so bright, all normal light seems to be dark. Yet,..... Okay this could go on and on with a full description. Yet, the next day, The room goes black again, Jesus is inside of me. The inside of me is lit up and all outside light is non existent by contrast. It does not hurt. I feel him in his essence. I ask questions, In the most non verbal fashion I can imagine, I hear the words and I do not hear the words. My ears hear nothing yet the words are there. For fifteen minutes He is inside, not outside, rather He is actually inside of me. Later in months to come, I get and additional 18hours one day. It is great. I am oldish, 60 years old, I am getting weaker. One day last week, I was in morning weekday Mass, which is my pleasure, and I could not continue. I was too tired to stay through communion. Somehow, the words spoken by the homilist, or priest, of Jesus knows what is in your heart, stood out as the most important and only words heard for the entire liturgy portion of the Mass. I walk out and do not want to. Jesus, came and stayed inside me the whole day. He felt wonderful. He felt delightful. There are some other feelings. His core feeling of who He Is, is He Is Tender... and Mild. The ... on the end of Tender is to try and state accurately, if it is at all possible in human terms, just how large this tenderness is. When I felt His full tenderness, I probed the depths of it, with my feelings, I followed, and followed and followed. Fear for a brief moment, overtook me as I thought that if I were to continue, I might die. This stopped immediately. I have since, probed the depths, yet that is much more to this. The next day or the next, of all things, really to say how great she is versus anything about me, I am sure. I asked if it did not cause any problems or hardships or pain or the other reasons I don't remember now, I asked if was possible could I see Mary, and only if it was not a problem. I did not expect this to happen and yet it did. And, she appeared, and went to Mass, and during the peace offering turned around and gave me her hand. I was stunned, by what happened immediately before, by her clothes, by her looks. I was also stuned by the fact that it was as she looked immediately before she died. She looked like she did when she was 49 years old. This was better for me than anything you could imagine, because, and I am not sure, but just like a mom giving presents, she gave me several perfect presents. This was one. I hesitate to tell you where I was, and yet I was. I was called. Mary called me strongly, God later on made it clear. I went, I did know why but not what. I was to go to get a gift. I went and got many gifts. The greatest, was Mary gave me her son, and not in the classic sence of Him in birth, and later resurrection, and then in the Eucharist, and then in each person's heart, and They, the Trinity come to live in us. She gave Him to me up close personal and inside, and I knew who He Is. Yes, there is much, such as this, which is true now, and in conversations to others, of the knowlege transferred from this contact and even in His presence in me now. There is more. Yet, as Paul did not say everything, I cannot for your sakes say everything also. Now to the point. There were two other items not relating to seeing and experiencing the Trinity, Jesus, and Mary, there were later, conversations, it is one of these conversations that I am to speak of after first asking the question: Is the capitalized version of Wisdom refered to in Proverbs 8 and later increasingly made clear in the first sentence of Proverbs 9, really a personification as it is there. Or is the lower case in all other sections of the Bible either a personification or a concept or an attribute. No matter, I have no definitive answer, except... Well, again I can't say. Yet, if it is a real person, then the rest is much clearer and provable in Scripture references. Because, as I had told the other items to my Spiritual Director, and he first said: "That is heresy." to conversation item one. In conversations with God item two, he said, but..... and I will not go on, as this is not a casual item. I tried to assure him I was there to find out, and am will through out all that is not of God. If anything, is heresy, it will go. Now, I was not expecting this, yet the answer so pervaded and infused my being as both us and the stated positions were the same he asked. Why do you want to know this? I think he asked later the same question. Each time, the answer was the same, and I thought it needed not to be stated, as it was true and everyone knows this. I said: "Because God is All Good, and I do not want to hurt Him or His church, I want to know. When I was 13 God, probably The Holy Spirit asked me in church: "Do, you believe this?" "I tolk Him I did not." "For forty years I wandered spiritually wondering if God even existed. That was wrong and horrible. I hurt Him then. I do not wish to do this again. Because He is Good, I wish to know." He made no comment. Time, a short time passed, and he said. I will set up a test and a very difficult one. He set up a test, and this is only acceptable to God, read James, I think in the most extreme cases of needing wisdom from God. This was extreme for me. It was so extreme, what I had been going through, since doubting what God had made clear, that when he said. And for your part you will do..... There must be a time limit. Ninety days. In ninety days this must happen, or it is... I could not wait that long. I am in dire stress for these items. I asked, can this be shortened. Can it be thirty days? Yes he said. I then didn't like the day later that it ended on, it seemed wrong somehow and against the holiness of God, to end this test and request for wisdom from God on Tuesday of Holy Week. I later asked it to be changed because of this. He said it was not to be changed. It was fine. In the end it did not need to be changed. On the last reasonable possible day, in all the ways that God answers things, He actually did, and it broke my heart. It does even now. I made Him retell me several truths were true which I knew all along were true. My Spiritual Direector confirmed all this when I told him the results. He responded, I do this for a living. This is The Holy Spirit. This is a confirmation that all that you brought to me is from God and true. With the heartbreak, there was joy and trepedation. I was worried, because, I did not go over what was talked of. One of the items was very hard for this priest. Actually two items were very hard for this priest. One of the items, could not be true, unless, I was a woman and am a woman, and has been made most clear in the last year. Yet, I have a perfect chastity belt given to me by God, and I think this is the reason, I have a Male body, genetically. It is this chastity belt of sorts, and the incredible confusion, of all things, that has put me at 59 and half years, with first remembering this again. Telling a priest. The priest praying profusely for me to God. God, through Mary responding, by producing mental, emotional, physical changes in my body in the next two months, sufficient to make it easier to live in this male body. All medical evidence, and there was plenty as this was concerning me greatly, can not explain this. They said on their last day of results evaluation. There is not hormonal, or growth, or cancer or anything which can explain the changes that have taken place in you. Now, and never before, I thought like a woman. I multitasked. I knew what smooth meant and felt like. Pink is now a color and not a stimulant. Base male voices are most pleasant now. I do not have large breasts, although they are sufficient, and there is no milk glands, as least yet. It is over a year now. How is this possible, from the prayers of a holy priest, after my penenance for my confession was done. My penance was to come and talk to him about what is going on I think. I had been to confession a lot over these types of issues. I said and he was shocked to the point of anger from dissapointment and the loss of a compatriot. I told him, I feel like a woman trapped in a male body. As he calmed down, I said: "How do you think it is for me? How, do you think it is to live like this?" Instantly, or almost before, He realized somehow, this is a big problem I have. We discussed possibilities of early youth programming and problems. We eventually finished, and as we were to part, this most kind, tender, and quite a man's man, asked God in a most fervant prayer, to settle this for me. The sun actually came out or the clouds and lit up our area for a brief moment, when he was done. We parted, both much sadder, I the most macho acting man, who has done amazing items, especially for one who looks nothing of the macho in my estimation, was lost to him as a larger than life epitome of maleness. He was also lost to me, and for both of us for a time only, however that is yet another story of God acting. I thought I was cured. I thought I it was just bad childhood experiences. I thought I could handle these things. Two months later, it is the beginning of May. I have made a decision, I am a male in a male body, it is only some bad childhood missunderstandings that make me feel this way. It is wrong and I will learn it soon and have it confirmed by God in about six months. Yet, I am still very much male thinking, acting, looking, understanding, and have no clue of the way women think and act and live. Starting very strongly in May this would all change, and did. By the end of June it was over. I thought felt and acted, had skin changes and none of this medical, totally like a woman within two months. It is still the same a year later. Women, it now takes me 30 minutes minimum to go to the grocery store and has taken one and a half hours. That is only one clue. How is that possible, and all the other items, without hormones or?? or??? I don't know, only I suspect and feel who is responsible. It was confirmed later. ...C...

About Me

A Roman Catholic, who attends Mass, supports the local Catholic school and various Catholic charities, and is even involved in running a parish organization.
If you have any thoughts about my postings or maybe have issues you might like to see discussed, then drop me a line at awashingtondccatholic@gmail.com.